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Sales of the Nissan LEAF topped 1,000 units in Canada in 2014, a new high for the all-electric vehicle (Image: Nissan)

If you’ve see Nissan Canada swaggering around lately, there’s good reason for it.

The Canadian division of Nissan Group – much like its American brother – boasted killer sales in 2014, vastly growing their customer base and setting company sales records. In an economic climate that had buyers demanding “value!”, Nissan offered it with a lineup of competent, ‘smart buy’ vehicles.

Not bad for an automaker that was getting pretty invisible just a few years ago.

If you think of Nissan as the overlooked high school football player who scores the winning touchdown in the last seconds of the game, I think they can be forgiven for any showboating.

In November of this year, the company’s Nissan and Infiniti brands posted a combined 21.5% year-over-year sales gain compared to Nov., 2013. Year-to date, Nissan Canada sales were up 28.2% in the first 11 months of 2014.

These are serious gains – enough to push Nissan into the Number 6 spot in Canada’s brand ranking and capture 6.3% of the market.

On Nov. 13 of this year, Nissan Canada celebrated another milestone when they passed the 100,000 units mark for the first time since entering the Canadian market in 1966.

Canada’s cheapest car proved solid and fun to drive, leading to big sales for the Nissan Micra (Image: Nissan)

Leading the sales surge was the popular Rogue compact crossover (sales up 77.8% year-to-date), the spacious Sentra sedan, and the surprise success of the Micra subcompact, which was touted as Canada’s cheapest car ($9,998) when it went on sale this past spring. A total of 924 Micras left dealer lots in November, with 6,987 sold between April and November.

Even the all-electric LEAF, which has been on the challenging EV market for several years now, posted a 131% year-to-date sales gain, topping 1,000 units sold in 2014.

The automotive landscape at Nissan looks to remain fairly unchanged for 2015 – after all, why mess with a good thing? – but the company will have to keep on its toes to ensure it doesn’t lose any of the ground it gained this past year. With gas far cheaper than it was a year ago, it seems opportune that Nissan’s newest models – the redesigned Murano and next-generation Titan pickup (to be unveiled in January) – are on the large side of the vehicle spectrum.

Having had such success in the small car market, it would make sense that Nissan would seek to make gains in the large vehicle segment.

Earlier today, I found myself driving past a Nissan dealership’s overflow lot and was suddenly seized by a strange compulsion.

Pulling over, I hopped out to take an impromptu stock of their inventory.

Nissan’s been going great guns lately, aggressively taking to the airwaves in an attempt to boost its sales and market share. The spring introduction of the tiny, bargain-priced Micra into the Canadian car market was a gamble that seems to be paying off, with early sales figures showing much interest from the car-buying public.

I could easily see Canada being a test case for an eventual entry into the lucrative U.S. market, which Nissan seems to be counting on to get that bigger slice of the pie. Nissan’s second-quarter 2014 revenues were up a very substantial 37% from the same period a year before, driven by surging North American sales. Total sales were up 10.4% during the second quarter, despite stagnating demand in Nissan’s home country of Japan.

Nissan brass seem optimistic about the company’s fortunes in the foreseeable future, as well.

Noticing a good number of Micras in the overflow lot, I was curious to record the ratio of trim levels for little hatch, which starts at a tantalizing advertised price of $9,998 for a stripped-down ‘S’ model. Overflow lots are generally filled with dealers’ best guesses as to what will be big sellers, so there is some unscientific value in taking stock of their stock.

Early reviews of the Micra noted that Nissan didn’t expect to sell tons of the base model, given that young people are now used to creature comforts like air conditioning and power windows, but having that four-figure starting price was invaluable as an attention-grabbing marketing tool.

The Micras on the lot took that assertion and ran with it – in fact, there wasn’t a single real base model on the lot. Not one Micra, despite many being the ‘S’ model, stickered for less than the neighbourhood of $14,000, with the many ‘SR’ models going in the $16,000 + range.

Room at the top: the mighty Nissan Micra RS.

The reason? All the base models came with a creature comforts package that added automatic transmission, air and power goodies. That optional factory equipment adds $3,435 to the base price, which, when coupled with freight and PDI (and an almost unavoidable extra-cost metallic paint), brought the cost to $14,833.

Not stratospheric by any means, but still a nearly 50% increase over the much-touted entry price. However, if your jar of rainy day pennies doesn’t runneth over, I’m sure a dealer would be happy to order a stripped ‘S’ for your motoring pleasure.

With 109-horsepower on tap for a light, nimble little car, you’d think Nissan would have offered an upgrade package that omitted the automatic transmission, thus allowing drivers to maximize their car’s sportiness while still enjoying comfort and convenience (and saving a possible $1,500 or so).

Now that the car’s success in Canada seems a sure thing, perhaps Nissan will loosen up and increase the range of options and trim packages for the coming model year. I think it would serve to make an already appealing subcompact even more worthy of consideration.